Tag: speaking

A client recently told me she didn’t feel professional when she was marketing her mobile massage business because she didn’t have a website to direct people to when she told them about her business–especially when she was speaking with large businesses about hiring her to provide on-site massage services at their office or events.

“I feel like I have to have a website to direct them to where they can read more about my background and my services, and to ‘prove’ that I am a professional, or to have people find me when searching online for massage services.”

She was ready to devote a lot of time and money into hiring someone to help her create a website when she hired me as her coach, and I told her to put those plans on hold for now. She was shocked, but when I explained why, she understood better and was willing to wait on the website and use some of these other tactics I suggested first.

Part 4 of 4-part series on better speaking with
Guest Blogger, Lizabeth Phelps

This 4-part series has centered around public speaking. The first week, I spoke about mirror neurons and how our audiences “mirror” our energy; the second week, I spoke about maintaining energy when you’re speaking about your business off-stage (where most entrepreneurs fumble); and last week, I urged you to “get strategic” about your speaking and shared the strategy that makes not only getting clients so much easier, but ensures that every one of your speaking engagements maintains your brand identity.

Today, I want to circle back to delivery from stage.

To be your best as an audience leader, you must understand how to teach the brain–what the brain needs in order to learn. This is a massive subject, and one I’ve spent years absorbing. My public speaking training, Secrets of Impact and Influence, integrates the learning, memory and emotion areas of neuroscientific research to teach how to get the attention of audiences’ brains, keep that attention, and enable long-term learning.

Here, I will share some of what I teach in that training: the 10 factors of rapid and deep learning. You will find them in the graphic below:

In my first post two weeks ago, I wrote that your power as a public speaker lies in your energy because your energy is contagious.

Last week, I shared how most of my students come to understand that, but when they get off-stage and have to articulate the value of their business, their energy collapses. The key to powerfully describing what you do comes first in knowing whom you serve and then in knowing your “Business Thesis” or contention about what they must do to succeed. And I explained how your entire business rests on this thesis.

Today, I’m going to explain that—because it circles back to what you should be speaking about.

Last week, I wrote about the leadership tool of energy: that the attitudes and feelings (i.e. energy) that you project as an audience leader are contagious—whatever you’re feeling, they’ll feel.

Early on, participants of my public speaking training “got” that instantly, but then hit a major wall when they went on to work in a larger capacity with me. They soon found out that this tenent was as relevant off-stage, as it was on-stage in how they presented the value of their services to their customers. The energy that they exhibited on-stage when they spoke about their expertise collapsed as soon as I asked them to tell me what their business was, who it served, what it offered, and how it was different from everyone else.

I tell my students all the time: “Your audiences mirror you. If you’re flat, they’ll be flat. If you’re highly analytical, they’ll go straight into their head, too. Make sure you’re emitting the kind of energy you want them feeling.” And I end with, “Your energy equals your results.”

Some students get it, eventually; others never do. You can imagine, then, how overjoyed I was to discover that neuroscientists would heartily agree with my proclamations. It turns out that we have a very special brain cell that is responsible for mirroring the actions and emotions of others.

In a previous blog, I wrote about the importance of having a marketing mix and determining your top 3 effective marketing tactics to focus on. I've already covered one of them–networking. This post will cover another prime tactic to grow your business, which is through speaking.

The great thing about speaking as a marketing tactic is that it not only allows you to get in front of people to have the opportunity to generate leads but also gives you the opportunity to build your credibility and be seen as an "expert" in your field or topic. Yet so many entrepreneurs and business owners do not take advantage of this powerful tactic due to lack of knowledge or lack of confidence.